Days ahead ofDangerous Liaisonspremiering on Starz, the show has already been given a season renewal. PerTHR, the show has officially been renewed for season 2. This follows the series originally getting picked up in 2019, and perhaps the network has satisfied with what they’ve been seeing with the early reviews. A statement released by Starz head of original programming Kathryn Busby confirms the news.
“Dangerous Liaisonsis addictive, provocative and beautifully rendered,” Busby said. “This prelude to the famed 18th-century novel illuminates pre-revolution Paris at its most decadent. We are confident that by the end of season 1, viewers will be craving more scheming and seduction.”
Executive producer Colin Callendar added, “We’re greatly appreciative to Starz and Lionsgate for their ongoing support of the show. We’re very excited to share Harriet Warner’s brilliant vision for season 2, which will see our world expand and the relationships between our characters deepen in thrilling, dangerous new ways.”
Callender is executive producing for Playground alongside Flame Ventures' Tony Krantz, Scott Huff, and Christopher Hampton. The series stars Alice Englert, Nicholas Denton, Lesley Manville, Kosar Ali, Carice van Houten, Hilton Pelser, Fisayo Akinade, and Michael McElhatten.
Dangerous Liaisonsis based on the original novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. The official logline reads:
“This modern take on a classic story takes audiences through wonder and terror, beauty and degradation, seduction and deception in pre-revolutionary Paris. Driven to right the wrongs of their past, the young couple’s survival depends on their skills of seduction and manipulation of not only the French nobility but of each other… Their on-again-off-again love story is the heart of the series. It’s not love… it’s war."
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The Starz Series Puts a Prequel Spin on the Story
The series may be based on an 18th-century novel, but showrunner Harriet Warner wanted to bring something new to the story with this reimagining ofDangerous Liaisons. In an interview withEW, Warner noted how there was a lot of potential in going in the route of a prequel, as the story as it still leaves a lot left to the imagination when it comes to the characters' backgrounds.
“There’s one particular letter in the book that really gives this sense that there could have been a very different life before this very iconic character of the Marquise de Merteuil,” Warner said. “That kind of made me think, ‘Wow, there is something new to say here.’ There’s beenso many adaptations, you want to have something fresh to say, and I thought, ‘I want to know how these two people come to be so amoral and corrupted and the toxicity of their relationship. I want to go back to the beginning. How did that start?'”
On adding more “danger” to the story, Warner added, “I’vebrought the dangerbecause I think what we have, telling it from a slightly different social class, is the sense of what happens when there’s no safety net. I wanted to make the schemes and the games [that] these two characters play when we meet them in the novel and the movie… I wanted to really invest those with huge stakes.”
